My poor cousin up in CT has had no power for several days thanks to the October Nor’easter snow storm. As a Lightroom user though, you have all kinds of power for searching your pictures to find that one image. We have written a lot about using keywords and metadata when you import your pictures into your LR catalog. What we haven’t really done is help explain why.
At the top of the Library module is the Library Filter bar. This exceptionally powerful tool lets you search using any characteristic about your photographs, to quickly and precisely sort through your catalog of thousands of images.

The Text option lets you search through any field which contains, well, text. Keywords, Filenames, Titles or any of the metadata fields, can all be rapidly filtered.

Sometimes you are searching for other Attributes, such as finding all the pictures you shot with 3 or more rating stars, or even all the virtual copies you have made.

Finally, the Metadata search panel lets you look for any of the data that your camera automatically captures such as Date, Lens Type, Focal Length, Aspect Ratio, Shutter Speed, etc., or the IPTC data you put in such as City, State, or Copyright info.

If you really want to know how many shots you have taken with your 105 mm f/2.8 lens (1056), or how many images you have taken in Burbank, CA (37) you can find that out in a flash (oh, 6872 photos with a flash).

The Library filter really lets you see what you have been shooting. Play with it and you will learn a lot.